I was going through my Omnitrition Drops cookbook today, and it mentioned sausage…it sounded good. I got some cabbage the other day and have been meaning to make cabbage rolls, so this sounded perfect.

First problem, no ground chicken: Solved, I made my own. I had three thawed chicken breasts (about 24 oz) and I put them into a food processor with hot smoked paprika, rosemary, parsley, and oregano and pulsed until it was ground. When that was done, I took it out and pulsed the onion and garlic. then I mixed them together.

Next I sliced up 16 oz of cabbage, tomato, celery, and onion.

I cooked 16 oz of the sausage up with the veggies until the chicken and veggies were all cooked and added one tablespoon of tomato paste.

I took the outer leaves off of the head of cabbage, and one by one boiled them. Each was in there for no more than two minutes. When the leaves got pliable they were removed and placed on paper towels to dry.

Next I weighed the sausage and veggie mix. I divided that by 4, and then weighed out 4 servings. I took one serving and wrapped it up in one leaf. This made four full cabbage rolls.

Somehow, the sausage turned out a bit sweet, but a drizzle of Franks Original Red Hot was the perfect compliment!

My husband recently got a new job. He does not have time to sit down and eat lunch every day, and really needs a grab and go style meal that is easy to eat while driving. This is rather difficult on the HCG diet, because even if you are going low carbs, you could usually make a wrap sandwich with a tortilla at least. He cannot have tortillas so time to get creative!

I am on a support page for all Omnitrition products, but it often is used for support the HCG plan. I asked for suggestions on grab and go meals and the only thing I really got were a few suggestions for chicken strips or chicken nuggets. Today I decided to try the chicken nuggets. They were surprisingly easy, and really good!

First I turned the oven on 400 and let it pre-heat.

I used what Jeremy uses for salad dressing as the chicken dip, which is really simple to make. The recipe is below.

I took 2 wasa crackers (I used light rye) and put it in the food processor with some onion powder, garlic powder and oregano and created bread crumbs for the breading.

I thawed out a chicken breast and weighed out 4 oz. Once i had the correct amount, I cut them into 6 nuggets. I next dipped the nuggets in the dressing mixture and then coated them one by one in the wasa crackers, placing them on a baking sheet when I was finished.

Next is super simple…put them in the oven for 20 minutes. Pull them out and if you are serving immediately, use a spatula to carefully get them up off the pan without scraping off the breading. I am serving the nuggets with Franks Red Hot Original as dipping sauce.

The nuggets are deliciously tangy. Even though they are baked, they are packed with flavor and very easy to grab and go I hope! I don’t even miss the oil from fried nuggets. 🙂

Serve with some cool cucumber spears to cool your mouth a bit and enjoy!

Well, I have not really posted anything since being back in America, other than my husband’s birthday cake. It is time to get back to it, and work on the healthy cooking I was enjoying so much in Korea!

Jeremy is on Phase 2 of the Omnitrition Drops right now. This is the HCG diet that I was on in January. He is doing amazing and has lost 20 lbs in 10 days, and is still loosing! I will be starting again as soon as we have the money to buy another bottle of drops for me. I have been cooking the food for two weeks now, and struggling to be creative. I have done meatloaf, burgers, chicken 5 ways from Sunday.

Since I am not on the diet, I am struggling to stick to the meals, as I am craving bread, pasta and potatoes. I have been making some flat bread and tortillas for my tacos, but seem to grab chips or soda every once in a while.

For several days I have been craving spaghetti. I realize that is something I miss from Korea, as I won’t buy store bought tomato sauce anymore. I used to make it often for different pastas such as spaghetti or lasagna. This week I bought some tomatoes and the second I got htem out of the bag to put them in my fridge, I realized that they were either bruised from the bag, or just over ripe when I chose them. I knew they needed to go into my simple yet beloved sauce! I like to make this with fire roasted bell peppers, but since they are not allowed on phase 2 of the eating plan, I left them out for more tomatoes.

First, I put an x shaped slit in the bottom of five tomatoes.

I boiled them for up to one minute until the slit loosened and started peeling. Then I put them in a bowl of ice cold water to cool off and quit cooking. I then peeled the tomatoes (the skin comes right off), and cut the tomatoes into slices. I put them in a crock pot on high. I then diced up the onion into bigger chunks, and added them to the pot. I diced up the garlic and threw it in. I put the lid on and let this cook for 4 hours. When it started cooking down, and getting a little thicker, I added 1 small can of hunts tomato paste. After it cooked for another half hour, I scooped 2 cups into my food processor. I added the spinach in, and blended it together. I added this mixture back into the pot, and added the spices and seasonings to taste. I put this back into the crock pot to get it back up to temperature, and added 24 meatballs. I let this cook for a half hour.

Meatballs

I began by blending up 2 wasa crackers, 2 cloves of garlic, and 1/4 of an onion in the food processor. Then to blend, I added 1 lb of meat, and seasoning, and pureed for another 30 seconds.

Next I weighed out about 40 meat balls from this mix, each 1/2 an oz in weight. I cooked them in a pan with about 1/4 inch of water, stirring when needed to cook all the way through. When I took them out of the pan, they went into a bowl that was lined with paper towels to collect any remaining grease that was on the surface. When the sauce was ready, I put 24 into the sauce to cook for another half an hour (and lend flavor to the sauce), and the rest in the freezer for another day.

Noodles

Now for the easiest part! (Well sort of).

The hard part of this was locating the one ingredient…Daikon Radish. I had to go to a gourmet grocery store and pay 1.89/lb for the radish, which was over 2 lbs.

Today I peeled the radish, and then pulled out my mandolin. I have a $10 one from Walmart, but it had the perfect attachment for spaghetti noodles. I used it to slice over half of the radish into thin ribbons.

Next I boiled water. The directions I was given said to gently boil for 5-7 minutes. I set my timer for five minutes, but after three minutes, the texture resembled noodles and I tasted them. The texture was good for noodles as well. So after three minutes I drained the radish from it’s water and assembled my plate.

To get a proper HCG phase 2 plate, I put 2 oz. of noodles, and 2 oz. of sauce. Then I added 8 meatballs on top.

This is my all time favorite HCG recipe at the moment! I have not had one I like more, which is mostly because I LOVE Pasta, and sincerely miss it!

My favorite food since middle school is Pho (pronounced Fuh). Pho is Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup. My sister had a baby when I was in middle school. She lived with her in-laws, who were from Laos. Every time we came over, the family made pho. It was sooooooooo good! I loved it each and every time, and I remember the first time I had it, I experienced cilantro. I had never tired it before, and now it is one of favorite herbs. For those who are from countries other than America, cilantro is what we call the plant form of coriander. We call coriander the seeds of cilantro. they have two different tastes, so we classify them differently.

I have always known pho from that standpoint, from my sister’s in-laws. She and they always told me that it was Vietnamese beef noodle soup. Well, when I moved to Korea, I was introduced to chicken pho. I didn’t know that pho could get any better than beef noodle soup, but it turns out that chicken noodle soup is even better!

This past week I discovered konjac noodles. In America they are mostly known as Miracle Noodles or Shirataki noodles. They are not approved on Phase 2 of the Omni HCG diet, but I have done some research online saying that it is approved as a freebie food for other HCG diets. So, I decided to try them. They are very filling. I cooked a few things with them this week, or added them to other meals just to make them more filling, but 2 days ago, I got the idea that they would make the perfect pho noodles! I did change it up a bit, as I used chicken instead of beef, and it turned out AMAZING!

First, I boiled 5 chicken bouillon cubes with a pot of water, and three chicken breasts. I boiled it and added garlic, while peeling and slicing 2 onions. Once the chicken was done, I shredded it, and then I flame roasted the onions

I roasted it on both sides just until charred. I used two onions and roasted both of them that way.

I got some of the char off, and added it to the broth.

Next I added some garlic (maybe a tablespoon or two), and powdered ginger to taste. I also added a sprinkle of cinnamon, as one of the recipes I referenced suggested throwing in a cinnamon stick. I figured since I have ginger in there, it couldn’t hurt.

I let the soup continue boiling while I prepared the noodles. The noodles are found in the refrigerator section and are packed in water.

To prepare the noodles, you cut the bag open, and rinse the noodles off in hot water.

Next I use kitchen sheers to cut them up, as the noodles are quite long.

The next step is to wash and slice up some green onions and wash up some bean sprouts and cilantro. I didn’t have any fresh, so I added a little dried cilantro to the soup to extract as much flavor as I could.

Next up, add a little more ginger or garlic powder to taste, and you may want some salt and pepper if you prefer.

Next serve up some noodles, and make sure there is a lot of broth in a bowl. Once you are all served up, put the sprouts and green onions over the top. This is where you add the fresh cilantro if you have it.

Pho tends to be a bit sweet and spicy, so if you are on weight watchers, you can add some hoisin sauce, and some sriracha sauce for very little points. If you are hcg, you can add a few small pinches of stevia, and some Franks Red Hot sauce (the approved hot sauce). I honestly used tobacco cause it is what I have now.

Each bowl is about 7 Weight Watchers points, and for HCG I have no idea how to measure it, but everything except maybe the noodles are approved.

Okay, today is the first day that I have actually used lettuce as a bun…ever! I will admit, after a few days this diet is getting easier, but I still want a nice chunk of cheese or something!

I woke up today and lost another several lbs, now having lost 10.4 lbs since Wednesday (It is now Saturday). I am shocked! I have been living on hamburger for the past few days, and finally cooked up the rest today before it goes bad. I mixed about 400 grams of ground beef, and also threw in a little rosemary, and parsley. I mixed it all together and measured out three 112 gram servings (4 oz each), and then made a small little patty with the rest and cooked it up. Then I oven roasted 1 oz. of sliced onions and 2 oz of sliced tomatoes in the oven with a sprinkle of lemon vinegar.

I actually put too much vinegar on, and the onions are difficult to eat, although the vinegar really complements the tomatoes.

When the veggies were done I put some mustard on the burger and wrapped it up in lettuce. Easy and fairly quick meal. 🙂

Tonight after eating my first HCG diet dinner, I was still incredibly hungry! I had not eaten any fruit today, and you can have up to two servings in a day, so I decided to bake an apple. I cored two apples and put them into a glass dish. I put maybe 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, 5 drops of lemon stevia, 1/3 of a cup of water, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a sprinkle of allspice and nutmeg into a different bowl. I mixed it all together. Next I sprinkled a little cinnamon over the top of the apples. then I poured the vinegar mixture over the top of the apples. I baked them for 30 minutes at 190 degrees C. Honestly, I could have baked them a little longer for soft apples, but these turned out with a little crunch still, and it was very nice. I sliced it into sections, and served it in a bowl with a little of the juice poured over the top. I love that it was not overly sweet, which it would be had I added any sugar, it let the apple shine. I am going to use the left over juice in the pan drippings to marinade some chicken for tomorrow. 🙂